Double-Cross My Heart (10 page)

“Not me!” Michele averred with a touch of pride. “I’ve always been forward thinking when it comes to women’s needs. More so than my own, maybe. But tell me what’s going on with you. Things are going well, yes?”

“Of course,” Wendi replied gaily. “I’m so excited to be working in such a nurturing environment!”

Coming to Michele Cosmetics had been a risky move for her. Others had advised her to stay within her field of experience, but she’d known she’d reached the highest level she could achieve there. People who remembered you when you were no-one tended to remember that you were once no-one.

Wendi never intended to return to those days and she didn’t appreciate being reminded of them, either. Seating herself in a chair next to Michele’s desk, she said, “I’m settling in very well here. It feels like home, for the most part.”

“I’m glad,” Michele’s hands fluttered expressively, “I wanted to make your transition as easy as possible. That’s why I especially asked Eden to be helpful. It’s challenging to change industries. We were so glad, Carl and I, when you decided to bring your expertise in pharmaceuticals to Michele Cosmetics. I just know it will pay off when we branch out into our more medicinally-linked skin care products.”

“I have a hundred ideas,” Wendi assured her, her smile feeling a little tighter at Michele’s mention of Eden Merritt. That super-capable bitch disliked her. Despite Eden’s having been nothing but overtly nice, Wendi felt her rival’s hostility. There was nothing like the hatred of the well-established for the threatening newcomer. She’d expected that.

“We need new ideas, new blood! I told Sol and the others that,” Michele exclaimed. “I realize now that we need executives with a fresh perspective. New ideas! Don’t hesitate to share your thoughts.”

As the old woman dithered on, Wendi wondered how she was going to turn the conversation where she needed it to be. This sort of situation called for careful management. “Yes, of course, but with so many ideas, I have to decide which ones to suggest first. I need to organize the various directions we could take before I bother you with my thoughts.”

“Oh, Eden will help you get organized,” Michele assured her. “She’s so wonderfully efficient. I trained her myself, you know.”

Making sure she gave the appearance of hesitating, Wendi gathered a small frown between her eyebrows. The trouble with Eden was that she was a little too efficient. In corporate America, any colleague who was particularly effective became an enemy to all the others.

“Oh, Eden’s terrific,” she said with a hint of reserve. “I know she’s got a ton of experience and everything. That’s probably why she expects other people to get up to speed so fast, you know, do things her way? I guess its hard for her to see someone new come in. She doesn’t really understand people that well, does she?”

As she’d hoped, Michele took the bait, looking an inquiry at her. “Eden has been difficult?”

Wendi laughed, the sound relaxed. “Oh, maybe just a little. I guess I can ask someone else about the marketing deadlines for the Passions line. I just don’t want to slow down the process and its difficult without all the information. Eden’s done most everything you suggested, not a lot more, but that’s understandable. She has her hands full…with the human resources and one or two of the research and development projects, right?”

Michele frowned. “Eden is withholding necessary information on the Passions line? She’s usually very helpful to work with.”

“Oh, I’m sure she is,” Wendi hastened to say. “She probably forgot that I asked her about the deadlines…three times. I’m sure she’s just been the teensiest bit…how can I say it? Jealous, maybe? I mean you and she did work together pretty closely and she may be thinking she should have had some say in your hiring decisions, or something like that.”

Like anyone else confronted with criticism, Michele bridled a little, “Well, I’m sure I never suggested Eden take on that kind of responsibility. She does a good job, of course, but, as I told Carl, I’m still head of this company!”

“Of course, you are,” Wendi said smoothly. “You have every right to decide who to hire and who to fire. I can’t imagine a more important decision than the one of picking the people who will carry on your dream. You are the core of the company. You’ve put your blood, sweat and tears into it. Who better than you to decide it’s future?”

“No one,” Michele responded absolutely. “I am the heart and soul of this company. Of course, I am getting up in years and I don’t want it to die with me.”

“Don’t be silly,” Wendi chided. “You’re not old! With a spirit as young as yours, you’ll probably live forever! And what’s so amazing is how you’ve dedicated yourself to this dream. You really deserve to take a break! Have some fun. That’s the real reason you might want to consider changing your responsibilities here. You and Uncle Carl should go see Europe together. I know it would be a relief to me to see him enjoying himself at this point in his life. You, too. You work too hard.”

“Well, I have given my life to the business,” Michele replied before sighing. “You’re such a comfort to me, Wendi. I can’t believe Eden’s giving you problems. She’s usually so helpful.”

Wendi preserved a tactful silence, her face humble.

Michele fussed with a stack of paper on her desk. “I specifically told her to help you.”

“Maybe she thinks she’s been helping,” Wendi said. “But it feels more like she’s working against me.”

“I’ll speak to her about it,” asserted Michele. “I’ll take care of it.”

***

Two days later, Alex drew Eden into his arms as her apartment door closed behind them. Tucked against his chest, her chin angled up to receive his kiss, she was both firm and soft, her seductive femaleness beguiling his senses.

Kissing her deeply as he held her tight against his body, he felt himself stir in readiness. Automatically, his brain jumped in to assert its dominance over his body.

He wasn’t here tonight to fulfill his longing for her. Not yet. There were goals to accomplish and with her professional life in such turmoil, she wasn’t ready to move their relationship forward. He couldn’t let himself forget that. He didn’t want to screw this up on any of the levels he was juggling with her.

He’d had an ulterior motive in getting to know her, but Eden was the priority now. He’d known from the start that this was more than business for him.

“I’ve missed you,” he said when he lifted his mouth from hers.

“I’ve missed you, too,” she said, her smile responsive despite the shadows in her eyes.

Alex frowned, holding her at arms’ length as he studied her face. “Are you having more trouble with Wendi and Michele? What’s happening to make you unhappy?”

She looked startled for a second before her smile brightened, the wattage upped as she drew him further into the room. “No. Nothing unusual, that is. Just typical corporate crap. You know, no one doing their job. Everyone pointing fingers at everyone else. One of our other vice-presidents has had a car accident. He’s going to be all right, but I’m picking up some of the slack while he’s out. I’ve also been assigned the development position for a new anti-aging product that’s being researched in Europe. Michele’s pouring a lot of money into what may be less-than-successful product from the initial results. Same old crap. But I’m okay. Can I get you something to eat? Or a drink?”

“No, maybe later,” he replied. “I grabbed a bite earlier this evening while I was working at my desk.”

“So,” she said, turning to face him on the couch. “This is our strategy planning session. How are we going to get control of the company so I can exact my revenge?”

Alex met her gaze, noting the lightness in her voice, at variance with her troubled expression. Despite the fact that she was saying just what he needed to hear from her, an alarm bell
pinged
in his head. If his instincts were on target, Eden was agreeing reluctantly to his plan to bring the company down. She didn’t feel she had any choice, he was sure. In that case, he wouldn’t expect her to be impatient to embrace plans to bring the company down.

Never one to ignore his intuition, he said, “So, you’re excited to get started on this?”

Her expression shifted, her tense smile ebbing away.

Eden put a hand up to rub at her forehead. “No, I’m not all that thrilled. I’d love to find a solution that didn’t involve taking the company apart, but there doesn’t seem to be one. The situation the way it is now is unbearable. I don’t know how long I can last with Michele insisting I run everything past Wendi and Wendi leaving all her work in my lap. I hate having things work out this way, but I can’t let them run over me. That doesn’t mean, however, that I’m comfortable with putting my employees out-of-work. That’s bothering me the most.”

“Of course,” he said, reaching out to brush his hand along her face in a comforting gesture. She had to see the necessity of what they were doing.

“I realize,” he said, sliding an arm around her shoulders, “that you hate having to deal with this. If Michele wasn’t an idiot, you’d be working to bring the company into an improved profit position and ensuring a bright future for all the Michele Cosmetics employees. Unfortunately, Michele is a fool. If we don’t act quickly, the company will be snapped up by another corporation and you’ll have squat for all your years of investment.”

“My life,” she said with a wry smile. “Let’s face it, I’ve put my career ahead of a private life and at this point, I’m not guaranteed to have the traditional female options outside of work. I’ve put myself into this company. It’s all I have.”

Alex found himself laughing softly. “You’re not a fifty-year old woman, honey. You still seem to have plenty of life left. Plenty.”

She smiled at him wryly. “Thanks. I guess I feel foolish for investing so heavily into Michele Cosmetics. I trusted her and my job has always taken priority. I just never thought Michele would let me down so badly.”

“You have a strong sense of loyalty, don’t you? To the company. To the people who work there and to Michele herself. Despite everything?” he found himself asking. He liked that about her, despite the fact that the situation wouldn’t let her act on it.

Flashing him a startled glance, she didn’t disagree. “I guess so. We don’t always get things the way we want them. But I know what I need to do. I think you’re right. I shouldn’t let them screw me over. So, how do we go about setting up a takeover bid? If you start buying stock, won’t that tip them off? And won’t it take a fair amount of money?”

Eden was a take-charge kind of woman. Action of any kind would help her deal with the challenges she faced, Alex realized. “Well, the first thing we do is talk about ways to negatively impact the stock price.”

She looked at him. “How do we do that?”

“I’ve been thinking about it,” he said. “I have a contact with
Wall Street Weekly
who I can get to do an article on the industry—small, regional cosmetics companies. It might be a good idea if you get in touch with her independently and offer to be an unidentified source. You could give her an inkling of the trouble you’re facing at Michele Cosmetics. The article will have ripple effects to weaken the company’s image.”

Eden struggled to disconnect from the wave of dismay. The thought of stepping forward and putting her betrayal of Michele into action left her stomach in knots. Was she really ready to go out on a limb and give negative insider information on her own company? She already felt a crazy sick feeling in her stomach just lying to him about the anti-aging product. So far the results looked good, but she’d kept them to herself. She especially didn’t need to tell Alex the truth about the product’s market potential. It would give him even more motivation to get his hands on the company and its assets.

Maintaining her part in the conversation with rigid effort, she said, “Won’t the reporter at
Wall Street Weekly
think its odd for me to contact her? I couldn’t let her use my name. Would an article with an unnamed source do enough damage to lower the stock price?”

“It’s a good start.” Alex picked up her hand, lacing his fingers through hers. “She’ll know who you are and refer to you as a ‘knowledgeable source.’ Then you might want to have lunch with someone you know at one of the company’s competitors. Ask about the job market, sound anxious and vaguely refer to ‘lawsuits’ being able to bring an entire company down. But don’t be specific.”

“You’re really good at this,” she said, her voice tight in an effort to keep her bitterness at bay. His determination to takeover Michele Cosmetics wasn’t personal, she knew, but he’d crossed over into personal territory when he started dating her with an agenda.

Alex looked at her, his gaze searching her face. “Are you okay with this? I need you to be okay with it.”

A verbal denial crowded in her throat, barely held back. She knew she had to play this carefully, but deceit at this level didn’t come naturally to her. White lies were not even her usual preference, but she had to play a part and play it well to satisfy him. In the natural course of things, she’d be a little skittish, even a little tearful. She had to get it right or Alex would smell a rat and if he spilled his information too quickly to the board, she was screwed.

He’d already bruised her pride and threatened her heart. She was damned if she’d let him kill her company.

“I—I am conflicted about selling Michele out,” she said, delivering the words as a reluctant admission. “She’s really been a role model for me. I felt like I could trust her completely…but I know I can’t let her run over me. I don’t really have a lot of choices here.”